Electronic systems can include multiple ICs. Communications between those ICs can be conducted directly or indirectly. Direct communication can involve two ICs directly exchanging information. Indirect communication can involve two ICs indirectly exchanging information by way of a controller IC. mSilica Inc., the assignee of the present invention designs and develops electrical systems in which inter-chip communication is performed. For example, mSilica Inc. is the assignee of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/942,239 entitled “Apparatus and Technique for Modular Electronics Display Control,” which discloses a novel modular approach for backlight control of a liquid crystal display. According to that approach, several driver ICs share the workload of the system controller and are used to control the LED strings of the backlighting system. Each driver IC controls a portion of the strings. The U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/942,239 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In such systems, real time communication among the ICs is desirable. The present invention provides novel architecture and techniques for inter-chip communications that are efficient, easy to implement, and can be done in real time.